Robert Stroud - Biography and Popular Culture

Biography and Popular Culture

• Stroud became the subject of a 1955 book by Thomas E. Gaddis, Birdman of Alcatraz. This was adapted by Guy Trosper for the 1962 film of the same name, directed by John Frankenheimer. It starred Burt Lancaster as Stroud, Karl Malden as a fictionalized and renamed warden, and Thelma Ritter as Stroud's mother. Stroud was never allowed to see the film.

• In the October 1963 issue of MAD Magazine, the "For the Birds" parody of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds reveals that their unexplained attacks were orchestrated by Burt Lancaster, as revenge for losing the Oscar: "If you think we terrorized your house ... You should see what we've got lined up for Gregory Peck!".

• Sterling Holloway played a Stroud-like character in Gilligan's Island: Season 3, Episode 28, The Pigeon (3 Apr. 1967). This episode is about a bird, but is remembered mainly for the gargantuan spider. Gilligan befriends a homing pigeon and the Professor has a plan to tie a note on it to help them get rescued. The pigeon's owner, a Birdman of Alcatraz type, receives the notes but doesn't take them seriously. When the bird flies back to the island, it becomes endangered in a cave with a 6-foot black morning spider. Note: The giant spider was first seen on the series "Lost in Space" in the 33rd episode entitled "The Forbidden World."

• He was also the (musical) subject of the instrumental "Birdman of Alcatraz" from Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record (1977), a concept album about criminality.

• He figured as a minor character in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz.

• Art Carney played Stroud in the 1980 TV movie Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story.

• Dennis Farina played Stroud in the 1987 TV movie Six Against the Rock, a dramatization of the Battle of Alcatraz of 1946.

• It is mentioned briefly in the 1999 "Cat Orgy" episode of the animated series South Park, when Shelly refers Eric Cartman as the "Turdman of Alcatraz".

• In the cyberpunk game series Galerians (first released in 1999), Birdman is the name of one of the game's antagonists.

• In the manga and anime Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (2004-present), a character named Birds, an escaped mafia hitman who uses birds, is based on Robert Stroud.

• In the cartoon Superjail! (whose pilot aired in 2007 and series began in 2008), the character of Gary, who always appears with a small yellow bird on his shoulder, is an allusion to Robert Stroud.

• In the video game Team Fortress 2, there is a miscellaneous item for the Demoman based on Robert Stroud's nickname. Called The Bird-Man of Aberdeen, it is a green-and-yellow Macaw that sits on the Demoman's shoulder.

• The song The Birdman by Our Lady Peace is about Robert Stroud.